1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for the production of Coenzyme Q. More particularly, it is concerned with a process for the production of Coenzyme Q which comprises cultivating a microorganism belonging to the genus pseudomonas in a culture medium to which at least one member selected from the group consisting of isopentenyl alcohol, dimethyl allyl alcohol, geraniol, isopentenyl acetate, dimethyl allyl acetate, geranyl acetate and .beta.-methyl crotonic acid is added to form Coenzyme Q and obtaining it.
The term "Coenzyme Q" used in the present invention is generally meant 2,3-dimethoxy-5-methyl-1,4-benzoquinones containing an isoprene side chain in the 6-position of the quinone nucleus represented by the general formula, ##STR1## The present invention is intended to provide Coenzyme Q represented by the above formula in which n=8,9 and 10, respectively; that is Coenzyme Q.sub.8, Coenzyme Q.sub.9 and Coenzyme Q.sub.10.
Coenzyme Q is widely distributed in animals, plants and microorganisms etc., and it plays an important role as a constitutive element of the terminal electron transfer system.
2. Explanation of the Prior Art
Recently it has been clarified that Coenzyme Q exhibits excellent medical and phisiological activities to various diseases. In particular, Coenzyme Q.sub.10 is considered most valuable as a medicine since Coenzyme Q of a human being is Coenzyme Q.sub.10.
It can be considered that the way of obtaining Coenzyme Q is to extract from the animal and plant tissue, or microorganisms, and to synthesize chemically. It is, however, difficult to produce Coenzyme Q by extracting from the animal or plant tissue on a large scale. Also, it is difficult to produce Coenzyme Q by organic synthesis because of a disadvantage in yields. Thus these procedures are not satisfactory for industrial ones. On the other hand, the procedure to extract from microorganisms has the possibility of being employed economically according to the yields of the cells and Coenzyme Q.
It is known that microorganisms belonging to genus Pseudomonas produce Coenzymes Q.sub.8, Q.sub.9 and Q.sub.10.
Thus we searched the compounds that were able to markedly increase the content of Coenzyme Q per unit cell when they were added to the culture medium in comparison with the case that they were not added. P-hydroxy benzoic acid, and acetic acid and its salts are known to be able to increase the content of Coenzyme Q per unit cell when added to the culture medium (Japanese Pat. No. 20396/1972). It is known that the isoprene side chain of Coenzyme Q is produced through geranyl- and farnesyl pyrophosphate by the biosynthesis in which the condensation of isopentenyl- and dimethyl allyl pyrophosphate is repeated. However, since these precursors are difficult to permeate through the cell membrane, no attempt to increase the content of Coenzyme Q by adding such precursors to the culture medium has been reported.